Ducky Does What Ducky Does

Well, I did bring my camera home after all. Here's our latest conversation piece at 800 GLD (it might get moved off the fridge and into the living room once we get an extension cord).

That's my bike behind the frog there...if that's any help to anyone who is out there searching for it...and I know you all are.

Okay, so my bike is not at my house in Murfreesboro.

In other words, I think someone has stolen my red Bianchi brand 15-speed bike. So please let me know if you have seen it. It might still have the black cable-type bike lock wraped around it too.

My guess is that it was simply taken off of my back porch in Murfreesboro, since the key had recently broken and I was planning on taking it home soon.

So, once again, if you happen upon my bike, which is of course a very very unlikely thing, let me know.

Oh, and I still don't have a second job yet...so that's also not too good.

But at least I have that new Dream Theater single to listen to. And I found an old Sam Goody lightbox out in our shed that I guess belonged to one of the former tennants of our house. Ben and I cleaned it up and right now it is on display in our kitchen. I took pictures of it, but I might have left my camera in the 'boro, so sorry you can't see it.

That is all.

This sampler CD came in right as I walked into Sam Goody today. The record label guy said I could have a copy. So I took one, and yes, it is amazing.

So I haven't been up to much lately...

I saw Star Wars on Friday with Ben, Adam and Sarah. It was good, so go see it. I know you've probably heard that before but I'm just giving the movie my official seal of approval.

Saturday I went over to Nick's house to rehearse for his party that we (plus Luke and Josh) are going to play at. Unfortunately, Luke couldn't make it. We still did a lot of playing and came up with a 15 minute long DT medley though, so it was fun.

I was completely worn out when I came home though...I didn't sleep much last night so maybe that was the problem.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this summer so far, seeing as how it has been very lacking in the "doing important things that take up a lot of time" department. However, this also means there isn't much to discuss here, so I'll be back when something of interest to the general public actually happens to me. Until then, ttyl.

Well...as I mentioned last time, I went out to see the Brentwood High Percussion/Jazz band concert last night, and it was a great time. Everyone played well, although my sister should have taken a solo in the last song, but whatever. (Not like I would be the first one to take a solo either.)

After the concert ended I went out to Sonic with Ben, Brahms, Adam, Golf Team, and a lot of other band kids. Needless to say I felt pretty old in that group, but the important thing is, we all had a great time, plus it was dollar burger night so I actually ate some food there as well.

Today was almost a repeat of yesterday, only I turned in applications instead of picking them up. Tammy indicated that there was a pretty good chance that I could get hired at B&N, I think. I know she'll do what she can to help me out, but if I don't get hired I have a few fall back options.

Of course, I don't have as many options as my mom and dad would like me to have, which brings up an interesting point: I will definitely stay in Murfreesboro next summer, no question. I got home this year and immediately (I mean, the day I got here) was dragged in to helping set up for Anne Marie's graduation open house. That was fine, I didn't really have to do that much, but I still spent a lot of time with entertaining guests/refilling drinks/making food labels/refilling strawberries/talking to people I don't really know that well about things that everyone talks about ("How's college? What are you doing this summer? Oh really? How interesting! What? You mean you've told that same story 1000 times today? How interesting!") Anyway, now that the open house is over, my parents are REALLY pushing for me to get a job. Monday it was, "You better get out there and get some applications." Well I did. Now it's, "You better go find more places to apply to," as if they are oblivious to the fact that I have done that already, and also, more importantly, as if I can't run my own life. That's the real problem. When I get back home it's as if the past two years of me surviving through college without ANY major problems hasn't proven anything to them. Were they over my shoulder nagging me every day to get my English essays done, or turn in homework on time, or study for tests? No. Did I do these things without incident? Yes. And this morning, I get a lecture about getting enough sleep. I'm so sorry that on the only week I have had off in the past year that I spend a lot of it sleeping. I can handle my own sleep schedule, as I have proven, once again, these past two years.

So as much as I love being here at home (seriously), I could do without the over-bearing parenting thing. I mean, getting a second job should really be my concern, and it is. I am very concerned about making money for next year, so it doesn't relieve any stress I am facing with candidacy/work/other things when they are there adding fuel to the fire.

Oh, this and they still treat Anne Marie, as they did to me, as if she is a child even though she's got ONE DAY of high school left. They restrict her from doing things on weeknights (or I guess, weeknight in this case), and they act like the worst thing in the world is spending time with someone you won't be seeing nearly as much after this summer. In three months, my little sister will be in College, deciding who she wants to see and when she wants to see them, even if this means seeing her boyfriend every weeknight for three months. I have complete faith that Anne Marie can run her own life at this point, so why don't my parents think so?

Well, because they obviously think I am not capable of doing it, or in a lot of cases, they don't think Emily can manage without constant nagging either, and we are years older than Anne Marie is.

Of course, I should be thankful that my parents DO care about us kids enough to still get on our nerves occasionally. And yeah, I am thankful that my parents do care about me. So if I have to go on the biggest internet-rant ever in order to conclude this...I guess it's worth it. But I still plan on staying in Murfreesboro next summer just to avoid this inevitable loss of personal liberties.

Also, YOU should be thankful if you skipped to this paragraph, because those last ones were just me venting. If you did read them, I apologize, it has been just one thing after the other these past few weeks...and the pressure was building.

The next post on here will not be nearly as bad, trust me.

Well I finally moved my computer back here to Brentwood, as well as the only other essential item for the summer, my guitar. Now I just need another job so that I have money next year.

That is why I went out to get some applications today. I'm really hopeful that I can get the "hookup" at the Barnes and Noble cafe. The cafe manager is my old boss from Sam Goody and the bookstore manager is my old district manager, so things are looking good. I also went by Krispy Kreme since they're hiring full-time shifts, and I even went over to Starbucks since Adam just got hired there.

Oh, and the whole brick/construction thing looks pretty hopeless right now, since they stopped hiring about a week ago. So, I guess when Mr. Jones said that I didn't need to get in touch with him until a week or two before I wanted to start working he meant it...as long as I could start working a week or two ago (which I really couldn't). Anyway, when someone offers ten bucks an hour positions will fill up fast, and they started offering about a month and a half ago. Whatever...not like this weather was going to make it easy to do physical labor outside for 8 hours a day, even though I would have been in incredible shape at the end of this summer.

Oh, and in other great news, I didn't make candidacy for the recording industry program. I would have had to had at least a 4.0 cumulative GPA or gotten A's in almost all of my recording industry classes in order to make it this semester. So thankfully there's an appeal process where I can write an essay and essentially beg them to let me in. Hopefully with my experience from honors english I can write the best argument they have ever seen and then I can actually be a recording industry major...which is why I am going to school...

Today was also the first day in a week that I haven't waken up coughing like mad. This could be because I slept for about 14 hours last night/this morning. I was dead tired by 10 last night and I didn't wake up until noon today, so it was good to sleep.

I will be leaving in an hour to go see the BHS Jazz Band and Percussion Ensemble, which I also have recently discovered is being attended by Benjamin Nelson as well. I will get to see my sister play in the jazz band and all my good friends that I used to drum with too.

Well...that's the news and I am outta' here.

This was sent from my cell phone.

It seems like everyone is sick right now. And if you aren't sick, I'm sure you know someone who is. I came down with a brief sore throat (like for 12 hours) on Sunday night, and now I'm just coughing up a lung on a daily basis. Benedryl helps though, so that's good. I guess all the stress and angst over the last two weeks of school somehow prevented me from feeling sick, because I seem to have been coming down with something everytime we get time off from school (Thanksgiving, Spring Break, and Now). The thing is, these things always go away in about a week, so I should get over this soon.

I also went with Ben yesterday to get his drumset. Finally, our house looks like musicians live in it. There's a drumset, a guitar, and a bass all sharing space with our couches and TV. Too bad we're both too sick to play, and I'm leaving the 'boro tomorrow.

Of course, I have to come back here since I totally forgot to bring my computer boxes back with me this weekend, and I need to move my computer back home. I can't even imagine what it will be like with two new computers on high speed internet at OUR house. Oh, and most of my family now has cell phones as well. It looks like my call to bring my parents into the 21st century has finally been answered.

My grades we're not as stellar as I thought they would be, but what else is new? I really felt like I learned a whole lot this semester, in all my subjects. I guess grades don't really correlate with what you learned though, just how much you can spit on to a page (and in some cases, at 8:00 in the morning when my brain doesn't function...period). So I hopefully will get candidacy for the RIM program tomorrow and will get a letter soon and all this stress about grades will be a non-issue.

And that about does it.

Well I'm at my house in Brentwood, on a NEW computer with DSL. I can not believe it. I'll actually be able to use the internet this summer without struggling through a slow computer with even slower internet.

It is summer, by the way. Ben is moving his drumset out to 800 GLD tomorrow, so Oyok could be just around the corner from writing our next progressive epic which will re-define what music is. (Not to be pretentious or anything).

Well...I guess that's about it. I've been bored so far this summer and I love it. I'll have obligations with work soon enough, so I need to enjoy this free time while it lasts.

So I finished my English portfolio...Finally.

I got up at 4:00 A.M. on Sunday since I crashed at about 8 at night on Saturday, and I figured since I couldn't get to sleep again, I might as well do my English work.

Good thing I did, since at 11:00 P.M. i finished my portfolio.

Now, I'm not complaining. I really enjoyed doing the self-reflective paper, so much so that I was shocked to discover that it was actually seven pages long on the first attempt, it really just kinda' flowed naturally on to the page.

The revisions weren't fun, but it was my fault for putting them off. So, I'm glad I got it all done in one week, when I should have been working on things gradually for months. We'll see how that effects my final grade though.

Also, I am sick and tired of girls always saying things so equivocally (look it up). This is something that has always bugged me (at least since like, high school), and now I know a word to use to describe it so that's good.

My room now looks better than it ever has, I mean, ever since I moved in it was just in a constant state of disorganization. I went through it last thursday and finally organized everything, and even re-arranged some furniture. For example, my TV is now on a higher shelf than it was before, and other exciting changes like that.

Oh and welcome back, Family Guy, we missed you.